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Thermaltake Frio Advanced

Thermaltake has been in the aftermarket cooler business since day one, and over the years have developed numerous interesting products. Most recently they have stepped away from the eye catching designs placing more emphasis on performance.

Their most recent performance series is called "Frio." The original model, known simply as Frio, tipped the scales at a whopping 1042 grams which included a pair of 120mm fans. Those fans were capable of spinning at 2500 RPM where they could move 101.6 CFM, though doing so would generate a rather loud 43 dBA.

The Frio was followed by the FrioOCK which was even heavier at 1093 grams. The extra weight was attributed to the larger 130mm fans which moved 121 CFM at just 2100 RPM.

Now we have the Frio Advanced, which was released in conjunction with the new Intel LGA2011 platform. The cooler does support all modern AMD and Intel platforms out of the box however. The Frio Advanced appears to be a more mainstream offering compared to its predecessors as its lighter and the fans move less air.

The Frio Advanced features just five copper heatpipes which connect to an aluminum base. However this design sees the five 6mm copper heatpipes coming in direct contact with the CPU surface. This method is referred to as HDT (Heatpipe Direct Touch). I first tested a heatsink using this design back in 2008 when looking at the then new OCZ Vendetta series.

Given the size of those heatsinks the results were impressive, so we have high hopes for the much larger Frio Advanced. This cooler measures 130.6mm long, 122mm wide and 159.2mm tall giving it a similar height to the Prolimatech Panther.

However the Frio Advanced is considerably wider, as it boasts not one fan but two, and they are 130mm in diameter. The 130mm fans can move 88.77 CFM when spinning at full speed, though as they are PWM controllable they operate in the 800 - 2000 RPM range. These are not LED fans though they feature red blades as well as vibration-absorbent gaskets which are designed to decrease noise during operation.

Like the True Spirit 140, the Frio Advanced utilizes an all-in-one backplate design, meaning both AMD and Intel users will be faced with almost the same installation process. The Frio Advanced features the most comprehensive platform support as it is fully compatible with the AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3 and Intel LGA775/1155/1156/1366/2011 platforms.